Mar 21 2010

Racial slurs, or bad reporting? Who knows

Category: media,politics,raceharmonicminer @ 8:53 am

Tea party protesters call Georgia’s John Lewis ‘nigger’

Demonstrators outside the U.S. Capitol , angry over the proposed health care bill, shouted “nigger” Saturday at U.S. Rep. John Lewis , a Georgia congressman and civil rights icon who was nearly beaten to death during an Alabama march in the 1960s.

The protesters also shouted obscenities at other members of the Congressional Black Caucus , lawmakers said.

“They were shouting, sort of harassing,” Lewis said. “But, it’s okay, I’ve faced this before. It reminded me of the 60s. It was a lot of downright hate and anger and people being downright mean.”

Lewis said he was leaving the Cannon office building across from the Capitol when protesters shouted “Kill the bill, kill the bill,” Lewis said.

“I said ‘I’m for the bill, I support the bill, I’m voting for the bill’,” Lewis said.

A colleague who was accompanying Lewis said people in the crowd responded by saying “Kill the bill, then the n-word.”

I suppose it’s possible this happened. If it did, it’s despicable.

But I recall all the breathless reporting that a Republican campaign event with Sarah Palin speaking was marred by someone shouting “Kill him!” when she mentioned Obama.

It turned out to be a total fabrication. It didn’t happen. That has been proved beyond shadow of doubt.

So. If non-biased people nearby, not Democrat congressional staffers or known left-wing journalists, are willing to confirm this, I’ll give it a big “maybe.”

Until then, even if it happened, it is one event, one person, saying something disgusting.

And as far as I’m concerned, it’s in serious doubt until someone objective confirms it.

The best way to convince me would be if some of the tea party people themselves said it happened, because that would be an “admission against interest.” And if reporters really want to get to the bottom of it, I’m sure they can find some of those people, and that some of those people would tell the truth about it.

I note the complete absence of any non-partisan confirmation in the reporting so far.

UPDATE:  I see that Powerline has a similar take.


Mar 06 2010

In honor of Black History month

Category: abortion,diversity,politics,race,societyharmonicminer @ 4:43 pm

THIS IS BLACK HISTORY MONTH

The year is 1865. The Civil War finally comes to an end and the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution officially abolishes slavery.

For awhile, things looked pretty good for freed slaves. Just a year after the Civil War ended, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, conferring citizenship and equal rights for black people. A few months later, Congress approved the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteeing due process and equal protection under the law to all citizens.

Two years after the Civil War, in 1867, Congress passed Reconstruction Acts. The status of the Negro was the focal problem of Reconstruction. Though slavery had been abolished the white people of the South were determined to keep the Negro in his place, socially, politically, and economically. Enter the notorious “Black Codes.” These codes were regarded as a revival of slavery in disguise. The first such body of statutes was enacted in the state of Mississippi in November 1865.

That same year in Tennessee, a group of ex-Confederate soldiers formed the KKK, a group of domestic terrorists with a focused objective: to intimidate freed former slaves and their white supporters. Klan terrorism succeeded in preventing African-Americans from using their newly won rights. The Klan’s aim was to prevent African-Americans from voting, getting an education, competing for jobs and owning property.

By 1869, Congress approved the Fifteenth Amendment guaranteeing African Americans the right to vote.

Congress approved the Civil Rights Act in March of 1875 and by 1883 it was overturned. On October 15, the Supreme Court declared the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional. The court declared that the Fourteenth Amendment forbids states, but not citizens from practicing discrimination.

From 1870 to 1895, many blacks gained elective office throughout the Nation, but outbreaks of violence against blacks in the South became more and more common.

It wasn’t long before America’s cities were over-flowing with former slaves and their extended families. They were migrating north to seek employment opportunities in industrial cities and to escape racism, and violence. The Great Migration from the south to north began around 1915. More than 4 million blacks,former farmers and field workers became bell hops, butlers, maids, doormen, cooks, and nannies–they shined shoes and cleaned toilets. They attended schools—many started businesses or became teachers and by 1920, African American writers, poets and artists emerged in a period of creativity known as the Harlem Renaissance. Black people started to realize the American Dream came not only in white–but black and shades of gray, as well.

Meanwhile, the KKK was raging a lynching war on Negroes in the south and Margaret Sanger and friends were devising an evil plan of their own. She was a staunch believer in eugenic controls to enforce what she called “race hygiene.” She associated with known racists and in 1926 she was the guest speaker at a Ku Klux Klan rally in Silverlake, New Jersey.

In Margaret Sanger’s book The Pivot of Civilization, (published 1922), she also called for the elimination of “human weeds,” for the segregation of “morons, misfits, and maladjusted,” and for the sterilization of “genetically inferior races.

In 1939, Sanger’s NEGRO PROJECT was initiated. The plan was simple-get rid of black people. Kill them off by limiting the growth of the population by abortion and sterilization

She knew that some blacks would figure out their sinister plot so it was decided by Sanger to take the plan to the clergy and charismatic members the black community to have them deliver the death message to their congregations.

In a letter to Dr. Clarence Gamble Sanger stated, “We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population. And the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.”

Notice that Sanger said the ministers should be “hired.” There are many black ministers, politicians and community organizers today who support abortion, Sanger’s form of ethnic cleansing–most of them are still “hired.” They have sold their souls for “30 pieces of silver.”

Margaret Sanger went on to become the founder of Planned Parenthood an organization that makes most of its blood money by killing children—especially black children.

Abortion providers are still being located for the most part in black neighborhoods and are still delivering the same old message–that black, poor children, living in urban areas–are not worthy of life. America would be a better place without black people.

The KKK brutally killed about 3500 black people since it began in 1865—Margaret Sanger’s Planned Parenthood is responsible for the more than 17 million black deaths since 1973.

Every day more than 5000 babies are slaughtered by the blades of the abortion butchers—decapitated, ripped apart…killed.

How can America say we are better than the regimes of the Holocaust, Darfur, Sudan or China if we allow the butchering of America’s innocent children to continue?

This is Black History Month. Let’s remember why the killing began and then vow in Jesus’ name to end it…


Nov 01 2009

Race: Issue or non-issue?

Category: race,racismamuzikman @ 8:46 am

There is an article in the Washington Times today, describing the current mayoral race in Atlanta.  From the headline to the last paragraph, the content of the article is almost entirely about race – the race of the candidates, the racial mixture of city residents, the race of past mayors in the city, etc. What generated the article is the fact that Atlanta may be about to elect the first white mayor in 36 years.

After reading the article I was struck by its misleading tone. In fact I think the headline, “White candidate scrambles vote, attitudes in Atlanta race” is not only misleading, it is just plain wrong.   What is most newsworthy about the article is the fact that race of the leading candidate, a white woman, seems to be a non issue for most voters.

So why not a headline that reads, “Race plays little or no role in current election”?  The answer of course is that there are many who simply don’t believe such a thing is possible.  Loud voices remind us daily how our racial past is the lens through which all things must be viewed.  But what if it’s just not true anymore?  What if racism is no longer a major factor in elections?  Will our current climate of color-coding and color-obsession even allow us to acknowledge such a thing?

I can’t help but think Martin Luther King would be rather disappointed if he saw what his great civil rights struggle had become, for in some ways his dream seems even farther off today than it was in 1963.  For in spite of significant evidence that people are being judged by the content of their character, there are many in the public forum who would have us believe it is all about the color of their skin.


Oct 05 2009

The race card… again played by the Left

Category: freedom,government,politics,raceharmonicminer @ 9:07 am

Star Parker on Cavuto


Sep 09 2009

Black Christians and political leaders

Category: politics,race,religionharmonicminer @ 9:07 am

When color trumps Christianity

How can black Christians allow race and color to trump Christian principles in driving their support for a leader?

Read it all.


Aug 25 2009

Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore…

Category: raceamuzikman @ 12:53 am

The other day I wrote a humorous blog about the beer summit, race and political correctness.  I tried to be as absurd as possible to point out the absurd rhetoric so often used in discussions on the subject of race.

Well, I’m here to say I have been clearly outdone.  Someone has far surpassed me on the race and color absurdity scale.  Only one small difference – they aren’t trying to be funny!  The speech police are coming.

Read the entire article here.


Aug 02 2009

The Beer Summit Protocol

Category: humor,Obama,race,racismamuzikman @ 1:41 am

(NOTE: All beers mentioned in this blog are actual brand names.)

As everyone knows the White House just concluded the so-called Beer Summit.  The Acting Chief of Protocol Laura B. Wills, must have had her hands full last week in preparation for such an austere Presidential event.  Just the selection of the correct beer alone have been pretty tricky business.  I’m sure Chief Wills had to summon all of her considerable suds-selection experience in order to pull this one off.

I think one of the biggest challenges would be in selecting beers with an appropriate name, given the seriousness of the occasion (a White House Summit) and the sensitive subject matter (racism).  Just a cursory investigation into the world of beer and breweries reveals there are literally hundreds of beer names in the world, running the gamut from mundane to clever to rude.  But not just any beer will do and I’m certain the selection process was handled with great care, since so much was at stake. For example, imagine what kind of message would be sent if the President greeted Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates and Cambridge Police Sergeant James Crowley while holding a frosty cold can of Arrogant Bastard Beer.  Not good, (Though I wouldn’t put it past someone like Hugo Chavez to stock up on cases of The Ugly American the next time Obama stops in for a Western Hemisphere Summit).  Other beer names are just so outrageous they were probably never considered.  There is just no place at a White House beer summit for Santa’s Butt Porter or Seriously Bad Elf, (Say..that reminds me…Whatever became of Robert B. Reich?).

Since so many beers are identified by their color, this presents serious potential for offending someone on the basis of their race. Given the fact the entire affair has been racially charged one would think that any light or dark beer would have to be removed from consideration.  Yet the President apparently drank a Bud Lite – and he is to be commended for such a significant demonstration of magnanimity.  Furthermore any beer with a color in its title would have to be carefully considered, especially if it is a color used in describing certain races.  So Red Kite, Red Label, Red Rooster, and Red Ass Ale are out – wouldn’t want to offend any American Indians.  Likewise say good bye to Amber Bitter, Yellow Belly and Yellowstone Pale Ale in order to avoid any Asian pejoratives.  Red Neck beer is also disqualified for it’s own reasons though it’s inclusion would certainly have been tempting to Obama had any of the guests been Republicans.  Sgt. Crowley maneuvered gracefully to a solution, selecting Blue Moon, (I can’t help but secretly wonder if this was a subtle, silent fist-pump to the men and women in blue) but only time will tell how this move will be received in the Smurf community.

With P.E.T.A. always lurking in the background I figure any beer mentioning animals would be off-limits.  This eliminates quite a few; Moosehead, Moose Drool, Cobra, Dog’s Bollocks, Elephant, Fat Weasel, Golden Eagle, Lion, Snowgoose, Old Speckled Hen, Sick Duck, and Pig’s Eye just to name a few.

We know the Second Amendment is not popular with the current crowd in Washington so I’m fairly certain Colt 45 was ruled out. For similar reasons relating to gun violence Valley Forge, Veterans, and Old Chicago were also probably put on the Do-Not-Serve list.

There are a couple of beer names that I thought would surely show up at a beer summit hosted by Obama.  What better message for him to send than to have everyone hoist a Robin Hood.  If ever there was a man who robbed from the rich and gave to the poor….  The other brand is 1984 Golden Choice simply because the Orwellian similarities are so profound.

Let’s face it, the choice of beer is fraught with potential peril.  The name must be politically correct, so naturally I assumed the White House would be serving PC beer.  That’s right, there is a PC beer.  It gets better – the initials stand for “President’s Choice”.  Wow! talk about your two-for-one acronym!!!  It seemed like a sure thing until I discovered PC is brewed by Whitewater Brewing Co.  Disqualified based on color.  I really feel for this company too.  If they had decided to pick a more politically correct name, it might have created other problems.  I mean, who would buy a beer brewed by the Brownwater Brewing Co.?

Perhaps the biggest surprise came from Professor Gates who consumed a Sam Adams Light.  That is a double faux pas, first for the aforementioned “light” connotation.  But even more important than that is the name, Samuel Adams.  Yes he was a brewer back in the day.  But more significant is the fact that he was white, he was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and an unabashed patriot.  He is partially responsible for the creation of this country and it’s most cherished founding documents.  I thought Gates would gag if he drank a beer named after someone like that!  I guess it just goes to show you how all those Harvard alums stick together through thick and thin.

This blog entry is silly – intentionally so.  But sadly no less silly than some of the claims that are made and things that are said in the name of racial diversity in this country almost every day.  Maybe if enough of us actually spoke up and called them silly it would help us put the nonsense behind us.  We will never get past the issue of race and racism as long as we are continue our obsession with color coding everyone and everything.

Finally I must acknowledge Vice President Joe Biden, who drank a non-alcoholic beer called Buckler.  There’s not much to say here except that drinking a non-alcoholic beer is like kissing your sister.


Jul 20 2009

Obama, Sanger, Ginsburg and Holdren: the common thread

Category: abortion,government,healthcare,Obama,race,racismharmonicminer @ 9:49 am

Read it all.


Jun 04 2009

Seeking identity in the USA

Category: affirmative action,diversity,left,race,racismharmonicminer @ 9:29 am

Lost in the Labyrinth of Race  (much more at the link)

One of the unexpected results of the Sotomayor nomination is a refocusing on the politics of racial identity and the fossilized institutions of affirmative action-or the belief that the U.S. government should use its vast power to ensure an equality of result rather than a fairness of opportunity.

In the last fifty years, United States has evolved into a complex multiracial state. Race no longer is necessarily an indicator of income or material success-as the record of, say, Japanese-Americans or, indeed Asians in general, attests.

And what criterion constitutes race itself nowadays, when almost every family has someone who is half-Hispanic, a quarter-Asian, one-half black, or part Pakistani? What percentage of one’s lineage ensures purity of race, or qualifies for minority status? Are California Hispanics minorities, or so-called whites that are now a smaller percentage of the state population?

And what constitutes racial authenticity? Lack of income? An absence of success in the American rat race? Is the fourth generation upper-class Cuban an “Hispanic” who should qualify for affirmative action because his name is Hillario Gonzalez? Does the one-quarter aristocratic Jamaican qualify for American redress on account of his partial blackness?

And how does affirmative action-or even the fuzzy notion of “diversity”- adjudicate all this without mirror-imaging the statisticians of the Old Confederacy who could precisely calibrate the 1/16 drop of black blood? The university where I taught was full of South Americans and Europeans with Spanish surnames that allowed their various departments to be considered “ethnically diverse,” while others, having Russian émigrés, or the foreign born from New Delhi, Israel, and Egypt, struggled to satisfy the dictates of diversity czars.

In other words, affirmative action, and the racial identity politics that fuel it, are swamped by their inherent racialist contradictions-and made irrelevant by the dynamism of popular culture of the last three decades in which intermarriage, assimilation, and integration have challenged the notion of racial fides itself.

So begins an article from Victor Davis Hanson on the state of race in the USA, including affirmative action, “diversity,” racial preferences, racial identity, the nature of privilege in modern USA, the whole nine yards in the current race discussion and its political and social implications.  It’s all worth reading and difficult to summarize, a sign of pithy, concise writing.  Suffice to say that it highlights all the inner contradictions of the race conscious, and the futility of policies that were designed to redress grievances and correct imbalances, but cannot even identify who should qualify in any rational way.

Here is what’s clear to me: the election of a president of African ancestry has done nothing to satisfy the Left.  It has not convinced the Left that America is no longer significantly racist in its average viewpoint.  Instead, it appears simply to have placed the Left in the driver’s seat for every race-based preference and accommodation that it can construct.

We’re a long, long way from the “content of his character” vision of Martin Luther King, Jr., and getting farther away every day.

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May 30 2009

An age now fading

Category: diversity,economy,environment,government,Group-think,Obama,race,racism,societyharmonicminer @ 9:04 am

Reflections On an Age Now Fading… Read it all.

On matter of race, one detects beneath the therapeutic calls for inclusiveness, an unfortunate renewal of identity politics with a new harder edge-we saw that in the campaign with the slips about reparations and oppression studies, the clingers speech, Rev. Wright, and the ‘typical white person’ put down. Then with Eric Holder’s blast about Americans as “cowards” and now with the Supreme Court nominee’s somewhat derogatory remarks about the proverbial white male judge. We are not hearing praise of the melting pot ideal of intermarriage, assimilation, or integration-even if such elites in their private lives do not predicate their daily regimens in terms of racialism. I spent 21 years in a university in which quite affluent elites sought any multicultural patina possible for an edge in professional advancement and general leverage–the hyphenated name, the addition of the accent mark on the name, the non-American accentuation, occasional ethnic dress, the relabeling of one as a designated minority who otherwise had not previously emphasized race, etc.—that would suggest they were not part of the popular capitalist culture-supposedly centered on the white male-around them. Yet I left sensing the industry of race was doomed, due to the power of popular culture, the unworkable labyrinth of racial identification due to intermarriage, the laughable contradictions (the jet-black immigrant from India got no favored treatment, the light-skinned Costa Rican name Jorge piggy-backed onto the Mexican-American experience), the son of the Mexican father who used his name Gomez was authentic, the son of the Mexican mother who carried his non-Mexican father’s name Wilson was not. And on and on with this ridiculous neo-Confederate practice of adjudicating percentages of race to the sixteenth, and drops of targeted minority blood—a racist enterprise to the core. The only constant? The white male was fair game. It mattered little that more women were graduating than men, that under the racial spoils system we were beginning to see white males in less percentages than those found in the general population at the university; instead, it was sort of OK to trash, as in the manner of Sotomayor’s comment, the proverbial white male, as if we are collectively ashamed of everyone from the Wright Brothers to Lincoln to John Wayne to JFK.

When so close an observer of history and modern life as Victor Davis Hanson is this pessimistic, I feel the need to go see an escapist movie or something.

Read his entire article. Then go get a massage or a pedicure and try not to think about it.


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